Gurnee, IL -- Many companies in virtually every industry of American business have tightened their financial belts in the last year due to the world economic situation.  At Buchanan Visual Communications, pressroom manager Dave Newcomb chose to do something that has dramatically impacted the company’s bottom line and he did it before the crunch hit American business.  He saw an opportunity to replace a financially draining in-plant situation with a streamlined in-house ink mixing operation.  Since installing the Mx6 Ink Formulation Dispenser from GFI Innovations in early 2008, Newcomb worked off his stored ink supply and transferred the savings to the profit side of the ledger.

Newcomb’s way of thinking should come as no surprise to any Buchanan customer.  The Dallas area commercial printer has enjoyed success for more than 50 years, blending their passion with the seamless integration of cutting edge technology and a highly skilled workforce.  They maintain a 24/7 operation with more than 100 employees in a 75,000 square-foot facility that was built 12 years ago, and print a variety of long and short runs on substrates ranging from coated, uncoated and board (up to 24 pts.) to synthetic, plastic and foil. 

With the amount of work they handle on a daily basis and using in the neighborhood of $500,000 of ink per year, ink management is an area Newcomb identified that needed improvement.

“With our in-plant, we had built up 10 full shelves of ink and about $50,000 in inventory on those shelves,” Newcomb said.  “The in-plant itself wasn’t working because we had one person working eight hours a day, five days a week and we are a 24/7 operation.  We wanted to make our department more profitable and assume greater control so we could make what we needed at any given time.  It took about a year to work off the inventory, but the Mx6 Ink Formulation Dispenser paid for itself and helped us accomplish our goal.”

Newcomb uses the Accell Ink management system to monitor and control his ink usage with the Mx6 dispenser.  He estimates they reduced the cost of ink by 25 to 30 percent with the greater savings on PMS colors, which they count on for the majority of work.  With yearly sales of about $25 million, Buchanan has one web press but uses the Mx6 only with his three Mitsubishi sheetfed presses.  The 12-color Mitsubishi 3000R Double Diamond convertible perfecting press with dual coaters and dryers does the bulk of the work.  Taking into consideration the level of sophistication their work requires, Newcomb knew the Mx6 had to excel and perform.

“It took a little while to learn and tweak it to fit our system, but it does everything GFI said it would,” Newcomb said.  “We took some time to get our formulas just right so when we use it, there is no second guessing.  Ink mixing is not an exact science but with this dispenser, it is nice to know that if a customer decides to change colors or run them the same, you can show them the formula and it will match exactly the last job you did for them.  We’ve had pretty good success with our customers recognizing what we can do for them.  Plus, there is no ink waste.”

Newcomb indicated the Mx6 Ink Formulation Dispenser is not only very accurate but flexible.

“We use it only for our sheetfed work but whether we are running hybrid UV inks or conventional, we don’t have to change the cartridges,” Newcomb said.  “We usually mix anywhere between 5 and 10 pounds of ink for most of our jobs, but we have done as much as 30 pounds.  The Mx6 runs off percentages and we can adjust the formulas if we need to in less than a minute.  I think it has some neat features including an inventory system that tells you everything you need to know.”

As Newcomb well knows, time is money and that’s another benefit Buchanan gets from the Mx6.

“If we do have a problem with the ink dispenser, 80 percent of the time it is operator error because they are not using it the right way. The Mx6 requires very little servicing and you just need to keep it clean.  It’s not a complicated machine with a lot of mechanical issues, but it is good to know that you have GFI’s support.  We once had a sensor reading problem but we called GFI and they were able to help us fix the problem with a 10 minute phone call.”

GFI Innovations leads the industry in Ink Formulation Dispensing, including its patented Mx Series technologies.  The company offers a range of dispensing systems and accessories for paste inks, along with advanced software for ink formulation and inventory management.  For more information, contact Bob Wolff with The Drucker Group at 312.867.4960.